Learn Chinese Mandarin Free

Teacher Overview

A powerful educational app designed to promote the learning and love of Mandarin Chinese. Loaded with features and activities that support language acquisition and develop deeper knowledge of the language.

Teacher Review

Upon opening the app users are presented with a list of topics and lessons within each topic, all of which are initially are locked. Learners can either start from the beginning and work their way through gradually or for those more advanced there is the option to take one of several tests to determine their level, where successful completion will unlock all the preceding levels. Cleverly, the concept of topic based learning with lessons within topics allows the developers to add more functionality and topics as and when they need.

When users click a topic and then a lesson within a topic, the new language (vocabulary, pronunciation, characters, pinyin, sentence structure, etc.) is introduced through a series of activities that require the user to think beyond simply memorising the language. For example, activities include ordering a sentence in both English and Chinese; selecting the correct missing word; dragging the correct part of a character; typing the English or Chinese translation, etc. This variety of activities ensures that the learner continually has to think about the content as well as simply practice. At present users must click a separate section, which seems unconnected, to find an introduction to the new content, however, it would be nice to see new content introduced as an overview as part of the lesson prior to commencing the activities. At the end of each lesson users are presented with their statistics, showing the skills the mastered as well as those they struggled with, but more importantly learners are able to review these and either attempt the lesson again or move to the next lesson. Following the completion of several topics, users can attempt a test to assess their understanding.

The app also offers an extras section with three additional features: a “survival kit” containing basic additions useful for touristy situations; “fluent now” an advanced mode supporting conversation based learning; and an extremely helpful Pinyin chart, which outlines all the possible combinations and pronunciations of Pinyin, the standard system of Romanised spellings for Chinese characters. This impressive function also allows the learner to listen to a pronunciation, record their own attempt, and then listen to both one after the other. Very powerful!

Overall, an engaging app loaded with features to support language acquisition. A clear pedagogy for learning that is individualised and suitable for beginners to those more advanced, with some impressive extra features as a bonus!

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Developer Description

"Learn Chinese" is a Chinese Language(Mandarin) learning app inspired by Duolingo, it is designed for anyone who is interested in learning mandarin language. As the Chinese(Mandarin) version of Duolingo, "Learn Chinese" provide Chinese Language(Mandarin) learning including pinyin, vocabulary, pronunciation(Pinyin), grammar and handwriting. "Learn Chinese" is a game-based app aiming to make Chinese Language(Mandarin) learning fun and easy for beginners memrise.

Playing for 10 minutes per day significantly increases your memrise of the expansive Chinese language(mandarin) to a conversational level, regardless of whether you have a background in Chinese/Mandarin or not.

Check out some reviews of "Learn Chinese":
► "I really enjoy this app (avid)! I pay a lot for a Mandarin's beginners class in China suzhou and in three days with this app I learned more. And I used several tools:Pleco, duolingo, edmodo, livemocha, memrise."
► "A great app for students to practice their reading, writing and listening. I am a Chinese/Mandarin teacher(not in China) teaching beginning level of grade 4,5 and 6 in USA. This app has great potential as teaching/reviewing tool for Chinese Mandarin language learners."
► "I use a suite of tools: Nulinuli,avid, Mindsnacks, Brainscape, Pleco, Kunming, Rosetta Stone, memrise, Battery Doctor, Edmodo,Blackboard,Airbnb,HelloTalk,memrise,livemocha,PicsArt. I was very excited to find ChineseSkill. It's definitely become my favorite. It makes a big effort to teach a range of elements. Characters,pinyin, tones, syntax, grammar. And most importantly it has a review feature which is crucial and often missing in language learning. Definitely give ChineseSkill a go."
► "I am an avid user of Duolingo. I felt both intrigued and bad for trying Chinese/mandarin Skills because I thought I was supporting an imitation. Feelings now is that this app definitely imitates duolingo's app but in return offers us a Duolingo like progression of vocabulary and grammar for Mandrin. There will be plenty of demand for such a course and at least such a resource now exists"
► "This is one of the best Mandarin Chinese learning apps out there! It teaches you both important vocabulary and grammar. It is a must have(avid)! Plus, other apps are expensive and still cannot compare to the quality of this app. I live in China suzhou now."